Welcome to Sott.net
Fri, 05 Nov 2021
The World for People who Think

Puppet Masters
Map

Bulb

Venezuelan gov't bars US puppet Guaido from public office for 15 years

Jorge Rueda
Associated Press
Thu, 28 Mar 2019 16:59 UTC
guaido
© AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko
The Venezuelan government on Thursday said it has barred opposition leader Juan Guaido from holding public office for 15 years, though the National Assembly leader brushed off the measure and said it would not derail his campaign to oust President Nicolas Maduro.

The announcement by state comptroller Elvis Amoroso, a close Maduro ally, cited alleged irregularities in Guaido's financial records and reflected a tightening of government pressure on an opposition movement backed by the United States and its allies.

Guaido, who was elected to the assembly in 2015, has taken 90 international trips without accounting for the origin of the estimated $94,000 in expenses, Amoroso said. He also accused the opposition leader of harming Venezuela through his interactions with foreign governments, dozens of which support Guaido's claim that he is interim president of the country.

"We're going to continue in the streets," Guaido said soon after Amoroso's statements on state television. He dismissed the comptroller's announcement as irrelevant because, in his view, Maduro's government is illegitimate.
      Read More...
Chess

Brexit deadline passes: Brits were promised heaven or hell, not endless limbo


RT
Fri, 29 Mar 2019 16:53 UTC
brexit
© Global Look Press / ZUMAPRESS.com / Dinendra Haria
Brits were warned that March 29, 2019 would bring either a glorious new future outside of the EU, or a post-apocalyptic scene of economic collapse. No one promised everything would remain exactly the same.

Yet, here we stand, and that deep-down feeling that I think the majority of British people have had for some time has come true. They've woken up to find that they're still very much citizens of the European Union.

For Brexiteers it's nothing short of a betrayal, for Remainers it may seem like a relief, but at some point they have to accept that surely any kind of Brexit is better than the current state of limbo.

The political process is stuck like a fading vintage Jaguar stranded in 3 feet of mud. The wheels are spinning, the car is going nowhere and everyone standing nearby is left covered in s**t.
      Read More...
Oil Well

Tightening the screws: US orders foreign firms to further cut down on oil trade with Venezuela

Julia Payne and Dmitry Zhdannikov
Reuters
Fri, 29 Mar 2019 16:39 UTC
venezuela oil refinery
© Reuters/Henry Romero/File
Isla Oil Refinery PDVSA terminal is seen in Willemstad on the island of Curacao, February 22, 2019.
The United States has instructed oil trading houses and refiners around the world to further cut dealings with Venezuela or face sanctions themselves, even if the trades are not prohibited by published U.S. sanctions, three sources familiar with the matter said.

The move comes as Washington's efforts to oust President Nicolas Maduro in favor of opposition leader Juan Guaido have stalled, and is further evidence of how it is leaning on non-U.S. firms to achieve its foreign policy goals.

The U.S. imposed fresh sanctions on Venezuela's oil industry earlier this year but some companies have continued to supply the country with fuel from India, Russia and Europe.
      Read More...
Vader

US playbook at work in Venezuela: Manufacture a crisis, produce chaos, trumpet 'need' for intervention

Eva Bartlett
RT
Fri, 29 Mar 2019 15:39 UTC
pro maduro rally venezuela
© Eva Bartlett
A massive pro-government rally on March 16, Caracas.
Venezuela is America's current target for mass destabilization in the hope of installing a puppet government.

America has for years been waging an economic war against Venezuela, including debilitating sanctions which have dramatically affected the state's ability to purchase medicines, and even mundane replacement parts needed in buses, ambulances, etc. Alongside the economic war there has been a steady propaganda war, but in recent months, the propaganda has escalated dramatically, from corporate media to US political figures.

Venezuela is described as "the country pilots are refusing to fly to," as per a March 18, 2019, AP article on American Airlines cancelling all flights to Venezuela, containing scary phrases like "safety concerns" and "civil unrest."

Comment: Thanks to the integrity of journalist like Eva Bartlett, Max Blumenthal, Aaron Mate and others, the truth about Venezuela can be known.

      Read More...
War Whore

Western aggression: The US just 'invaded' an island in the East China Sea & no one noticed

Darius Shahtahmasebi
RT
Fri, 29 Mar 2019 15:51 UTC
MV-22B Osprey
© Global Look Press / ZUMAPRESS.com/Charles Plouffe/U.S. Marines
Just recently, the US military launched a full-on invasion of an island in the East China Sea to send a strong message to China, and yet barely any mainstream media outlet has covered the story or its massive implications.

Last week, US marines from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit invaded a tiny island in Japan's Okinawa archipelago, known as Ie Shima. Ie Shima is approximately 23 sq km, holds an airstrip, a fishing port and a local population of about 4,500 inhabitants.

Colonel Robert Brodie announced the planned operations in a Marine Corps statement last week. According to Colonel Brodie, because the Indo-Pacific region is "incredibly dynamic" the US Marines are preparing and training daily for "real world crises" coming about as a result.

The crises he is referring to is the loss of the Indo-Pacific region to an adversarial state, being China.
      Read More...
Light Saber

House Intel Republicans are demanding Rep. Adam Schiff's immediate resignation: 'No faith in your abilities to discharge your duties'

Jennie Taer
saraacarter.com
Fri, 29 Mar 2019 15:10 UTC
Adam schiff intelligence committee hearing
© Screenshot/House Intel Committee hearing
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) refuses to give up on collusion narrative. During the hearing committee Republicans demand his resignation on March 28, 2019.
House Intelligence committee Republicans are demanding Chairman Adam Schiff resign, citing Schiff's refusal to accept Special Counsel Robert Mueller's findings that President Trump did not collude or conspire with Russia in the 2016 elections.

It was evident that Schiff was not giving up. On Thursday, Schiff opened the hearing with "Putin's Playbook: The Kremlin's Use of Oligarchs, Money and Intelligence in 2016 and Beyond." What happened next put Schiff on the defensive, as his Republican colleagues laid out the case against him.

Comment: Delusional Schiff not backing off. Zerohedge reports:
Democratic House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, who made Donald Trump's now debunked Russiagate "witch hunt" his one mission in life, furiously pushed back as all nine Committee Republicans demanded his resignation, defending his past comments by lighting into the president and his family and campaign over its contacts with Russia.

Calls from Republicans and president Trump for the Russiagate-obsessed Schiff to resign as head of the House Intelligence Committee have been loud in the days following the release of the four-page Mueller report summary. And on Thursday, the call was made right to the Congressman's face in what Mediate described was an "explosive" clash, and The Hill dubbed a "striking display."

At the start of the House intel hearing on Thursday morning, Rep. Mike Conaway (R-TX) called for Schiff to step down - a call which he said was supported by all nine Republican members of the committee.

"Your actions, both past, and present are incompatible with your duty of the chairman of this committee - which alone, in the House of Representatives - has the obligation and authority to provide effective oversight of the U.S. Intelligence community," Conaway said. "As such we have no faith in your ability to discharge your duties in a manner consistent with your Constitutional responsibility and urge your immediate resignation as chairman of the committee. Mr. Chairman, this letter is signed by all nine members of the Republican side of the committee, and I ask unanimous consent that it be entered into the record at today's hearing."


A visibly angry Schiff responded immediately after, at which point the "clash exploded" as the Russiagate-obssessed Democrat aggressively pushed back defending his past comments by lighting into the president and his family and campaign over its contacts with Russia.


In their letter, Republicans implied that Schiff was involved in or aware of leaks of committee information that fueled speculation about collusion as the Daily Caller reported.
"Your repeated public statements, which implied knowledge of classified facts supporting the collusion allegations, occurred at the same time anonymous leaks of alleged intelligence and law enforcement information were appearing in the media," the letter reads.

"These leaks, often sources to current or former Administration or intelligence officials, appeared to support the collusion allegations and were purported to be related to ongoing investigations of President Trump and his associates."


      Read More...
USA

Trump vows to declassify & release 'all FISA docs'

Sara Carter
saraacarter.com
Fri, 29 Mar 2019 10:57 UTC
Trump
© Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
President Trump, in an exclusive wide-ranging interview Wednesday night with Fox News' "Hannity," vowed to release the full and unredacted Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants and related documents used by the FBI to probe his campaign, saying he wants to "get to the bottom" of how the long-running Russia collusion narrative began.

Trump told anchor Sean Hannity that his lawyers previously had advised him not to take that dramatic step out of fear that it could be considered obstruction of justice.

"I do, I have plans to declassify and release. I have plans to absolutely release," Trump said. "I have some very talented people working for me, lawyers, they really didn't want me to do it early on."
      Read More...
Arrow Down

Boeing introduces 737 Max software overhaul as lawmakers question FAA policies

David Shortell
CNN
Fri, 29 Mar 2019 09:40 UTC
engine Boeing 737 MAX 8 crash
© Reuters / Tiksa Negeri
Aircraft engine parts scattered at the scene of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 crash near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. March 11, 2019.
Boeing unveiled an overhaul Wednesday to a software system and the pilot training of its signature 737 MAX plane, marking its most direct attempt to fix an element of the plane's original design that investigators believe led to two recent crashes.

At the company's plant in Renton, Washington, where the plane is assembled, Boeing pilots ran through scenarios on a flight simulator that was transmitted live into a conference room where regulators and some 200 pilots from client airlines were gathered, according to Mike Sinnett, Boeing's vice president for product strategy. The guests were able to request test simulations. "We're working with customers and regulators around the world to restore faith in our industry and also to reaffirm our commitment to safety and to earning the trust of the flying public," Sinnett said. "The rigor and thoroughness in the design and testing that went into the MAX gives us complete confidence that the changes we're making will address any of these accidents."

The gathering came at a crisis moment for the iconic American company, now under criminal scrutiny by the Justice Department for its certification and marketing of the 737 Max plane. At back-to-back hearings in Washington on Wednesday, Trump administration officials were grilled about the decision to defer large parts of the 737's safety certification to Boeing. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said Wednesday that she found it "very questionable" that safety systems were not part of the standard package offered by Boeing on its 737 Max jets. "It is very questionable if these were safety oriented additions why they were not part of the required template of measures that should go into an airplane," she said in testimony before the Senate, where she was appearing to answer questions about her annual budget request. But Chao defended the decision of the Federal Aviation Administration not to ground Boeing's signature plane after the first of two fatal crashes.

Comment: It appears that competition, cost saving, and corruption led to the Boeing 737 Max 8 never being deemed fit for use, for more, check out: Governments worldwide ground Boeing 737 MAX, mystery "new data" emerges: What do we know so far? UPDATE: Boeing 'pauses' deliveries

See also:

      Read More...
NPC

The Left will not let go of Russiagate, no matter what

James P. Pinkerton
The American Conservative
Wed, 27 Mar 2019 09:11 UTC
mueller save us
By now, anyone with a political pulse knows that special counsel Robert Mueller's inquiry has reached its conclusion. On March 24, Axios headlined, "Mueller investigation finds no Trump campaign conspiracy with Russia." Later that night, CNN's Chris Cillizza dampened Democratic hopes by stating flatly, "Collusion is now off the board." And the inimitable President Donald Trump declared in a tweet, "No Collusion, No Obstruction, Complete and Total EXONERATION."

To be sure, Mueller found plenty of wrongdoing by Trumpians and Russians. He did, after all, issue 34 indictments and secure seven convictions, with one trial (that of Roger Stone) still to come.

For its part, the loyal but hostile opposition is not giving up. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler tweeted, "Mueller did not exonerate the President." Nadler wants to haul in Attorney General Bill Barr for a little heart-to-heart on Capitol Hill-with 200 TV cameras watching.

Still, no sound and fury is going to change the headline atop The Washington Post on Monday morning: "Mueller finds no conspiracy."

Without a doubt, the mainstream media, which was so breathless in its pursuit of "Russiagate," has now had the wind knocked out of it. And in the meantime, other journalistic figures and outlets, further to the left and also to the right, have the wind at their backs. As The New York Times' lone conservative opinionator Ross Douthat observed, Sunday was a good day for such ideologically disparate critics of the media as The Intercept's Glenn Greenwald, the Daily Caller's Chuck Ross, and The Federalist in toto.

Comment: See also:

      Read More...
Megaphone

Erdogan blames US for triggering 2018 economic crisis in Turkey


Sputnik
Thu, 28 Mar 2019 16:15 UTC
turkish lira
© AP Photo / Lefteris Pitarakis
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday accused Western countries - primarily the United States - of triggering the economic crisis that Turkey faced last year.

"Attempts by a range of Western countries, most importantly the United States, to put pressure on Ankara were behind the August 2018 manipulations in the Turkish currency market", Erdogan said at a meeting with media representatives, as quoted by the Anadolu news agency.

Relations between Turkey and the United States escalated last August after US President Donald Trump authorised the doubling of previously imposed import tariffs on Turkish aluminium and steel to 20 percent and 50 percent, respectively. The US move resulted in the Turkish lira hitting a historic low. Turkey responded by increasing tariffs on 22 types of US goods worth $533 million.

Comment: Overt and covert economic attacks on countries that won't follow US diktats isn't without precedent. And there's also good reason to think that US players were behind the 2016 coup attempt: Also check out SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: Confessions of an Economic Hitman: Interview with John Perkins

      Read More...
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts